Document Links From AIM

Good afternoon WSH!  It appears from personal experience and observation that many of you attended the AIM training we’ve held recently.  Great!  Wish I had…

That sentiment is not because I need training (well, not in AIM anyway), but because I might have nipped a couple of lessons from the PerfectLaw folks that are not consistent with how I know y’all are doing business.  One of these is the practice of sending a link to a document in AIM, rather than the document itself, for review by senior attorneys/lead attorneys. 

 

Don’t get me wrong – this is a nifty feature of AIM that I want to encourage.  Yes, I used “nifty.”  I also say “swell” from time to time.  Anyway, if the lead lawyer is in the office or on the network, he or she can edit the document right in AIM without making sixteen other versions of the thing that some poor soul then has to merge (or mash) together into some final result.    But, for it to work you have to be in the office or on the network.  The fact is that our practice has a lot of lawyers working out of the office and with no real easy means of remote access to the network.  Sitting in court for two hours waiting on a motion calendar hearing and looking to kill time – whoops, I meant “to be productive” - is one example.  Under those circumstances, the link isn’t particularly useful. 

 

So, allow me to suggest, or strongly recommend, or encourage, or mandate, or whatever that you also attach the document you are linking to just in case.  That way, if the reviewer is remote and has time and an opportunity to review it, time won’t be lost by a link that won’t work.  He or she can just jump into the document, edit it, and return the changes to you without missing a beat.